Blood on Snow
by Azareel
Summary: Cloud hit the floor with a loud crack. Not even the snow could cushion his fall this time. He managed to tilt his head to the side, his breath laboured. The doll smiled as it saw the red blossom against the white snow. AU Character Death SephCloud Oneshot


Hello and welcome to the first fanfiction I have written in almost two years. It was originally my English coursework and I thought it sounded like a great idea for fanfiction. I hope you like it.

Warnings: Doll abuse, Character death and Shounen-ai AND Zack idiot germs.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, though do I wish I owned the Sephi-doll!

* * *

Blood on Snow

The silver hair glittered in the light, framing the doll's pale porcelain face perfectly. Blue veins stretched across its face gently caressing its skin. The starlight silver locks reached down past its back, brushing against the black leather outfit with armour. A blinding green eye shone from the perfect face, they were the reason Cloud had seen the doll in the first place.

Cloud had seen it lying on top of a skip, the glistening green eyes drawing his eye immediately away from his grey monochrome surroundings. He did not know what had possessed him to bring it home; he just knew he had to. Looking at the doll know, he couldn't understand why anyone would throw it away. It was well made and looked expensive, its only problem being the right side of the face, which was covered in old bandages. Like many children Cloud had been told that curiosity killed the cat, but in this circumstance, he could see nothing wrong with unravelling the bandages.

With a single touch, the binding fell away, revealing the doll's damaged right side. The only part remaining was the piercing green glass eye, held to the rest of the face with a few cracked pieces of ceramic. A sigh escaped his lips and he went to re-tie the bandages, the doll may have been broken, but it could have been fixed. It could not have cost that much, he mumbled angrily to himself, people always threw away things before even trying to fix them.

"Ouch!" He quickly pulled his hand away from the doll; he had cut himself on the broken porcelain. He examined his bleeding hand, glancing to the doll checking that the blood had not stained it. He paused for moment, staring intently at the doll's face. He had thought at first it had been expressionless, but now he saw a faint smirk on the dolls painted lips and a chill ran down his spine.

* * *

His hand itched. That was all Cloud could think about, the incessant itching that attacked the palm of his left hand. It was not something he needed right now, he thought to himself as he watched his teacher explain the work on the board. School was hardly the place he needed help finding a distraction in. The snow outside was already being a wonderful diversion, the students had interrupted several times already by screaming and scrambling wildly towards the windows to see the white powder float to the ground below.

The teacher gave an exasperated sigh, giving up on the lesson plan and allowing the students to roam free around the classroom. Cloud allowed his mind to wonder, gazing out of the window; he was reminded of the soft silver hair the doll had, as he spotted the glittering snowflakes brush past the window.

"CLOUD!" Cloud jolted as his ears were assaulted by the ear-splitting noise. "Are you all there space-cadet?" Cloud watched as his energetic friend bounded over and collapsed in the seat beside him, slinging an arm around his shoulders.

"And you're any better at paying attention, Zack?" Cloud replied, removing the arm from his shoulders, forcefully.

"Whoa, what happened to your hand?" Zack grabbed Cloud's hand, "I've never seen you get hurt before. You've got to be like Superman or something, finally found your weakness?" Zack babbled and continued to inspect Cloud's hand. Cloud snatched his hand away, just as Zack was about to remove the plaster.

"Don't do that, it'll get infected by your idiot germs." Cloud laughed as Zack pouted. He carefully pushed the curled edges of the plaster back down. Cloud smile froze on his face, eyes widened in fear as he saw the unforgettable blue veins spreading across his hand from the plaster.

* * *

Running home was never the best thing to do in winter, with the icy paths and snow ball fights going on around every corner, but Cloud needed to get home. His breath was visible in the cold air, trailing behind him. He panicked as his palm itched once again; the veins had spread more during the day and now covered his whole hand. He was lucky the teachers hadn't questioned him on why he was wearing gloves in class. He peeked at his gloved hand, watching the vein creep slowly up his wrist.

Engrossed the progression of the veins, Cloud skidded over an icy puddle, losing his balance in the process and landing face first in the snow. He quickly pushed himself back up, he gasped in surprise as he felt a hand grab his shoulder. He quickly turned round to see who it was, but no one was there.

"Cloud, are you scared?" a voice whispered. Cloud head span round in search of the voice's owner. "Poor Cloud, you don't have to be scared," The voice continued "I just want us to be together." A bone chilling cackle surrounded Cloud, getting louder and louder, until was kneeling on the ground his ears covered and his eyes shut tight. The laughter stopped and Cloud relaxed, thinking that he was safe.

"YOU'RE MINE!" A pale hand shot up from the snow covered ground and grasped hold of Cloud's leg. Cloud screamed, kicking at the hand that held steadfastly to his leg. "Stay with me, Cloud." The arm tugged at his leg pulling more of its body from the ground. Cloud continued to screech as a head became visible from the snow.

There 'it' was pale skin, ebony hair and a piercing green eye.

Using all his strength Cloud gave one final kick and the thing let go of him. Cloud pushed himself off the ground and sprinted away, not looking back.

"You can't escape me, my puppet."

* * *

Cloud slammed the door behind him, searching the room for any sign of the creature. Cloud silently tip-toed towards his room, where the doll should be. He warily clenched the door handle, tightening his grip; he flung open the door, eyes wildly looking for the doll. He couldn't find it.

He grabbed the heavy replica sword, which Zack had bought him for his last birthday. If he was going to fight this 'thing' he needed to be prepared.

"I'm over here, silly puppet." Cloud spun round, muscles tensed and ready for battle. The doll stood in the door way, a smirk plastered on its face. "Does the puppet want to play hide and seek?" It chuckled before disappearing. Cloud gripped his bat tighter. "I'm over here!" the doll said in its cold voice. Cloud turned to see it bouncing on his bed, before it vanished again. "Now I'm here" Cloud felt a weight on his back, he quickly grabbed it and flung it to the ground.

"That wasn't very nice, Cloud." The doll scolded him; Cloud's only acknowledgement was to swing the sword at it. The doll jumped up onto the sword. "How would you like it then?" Cloud was violently pushed into the fall by an invisible force, knocking the air out of him. Panting, he looked towards the doll, which now stood by his feet.

"See it's not very ni-" The doll's speech was cut short as Cloud aggressively hit it to the ground. Without pause he continually slashed the doll, hoping that once he stopped it would not move.

Soon he was out of breath; he fell back against the wall, trying to get his breath back. He looked at the doll, there wasn't a single movement. Allowing himself a small grin of victory, he scooped up the mutilated doll and ran outside, back to the skip he had found the doll; he threw it in and heard a satisfying crack as it hit something solid.

Thank goodness it was finally over.

* * *

Cloud awoke the next morning feeling refreshed. The doll was gone, the marks on his arm were gone, the cut was healing and the world was wonderful. Pulling himself out of bed he readied himself for the perfectly normal day ahead. Talk with his friends, try and pay attention in class, maybe even start a snowball fight with Zack, anything as long as it was normal.

He even took his time walking to school that morning, making sure to avoid the skip where the problem had originated. He was caught off guard by his friends and was entered into a snowball fight before school started. Laughing with them as he made his way to class, his bag felt heavier on his shoulders. One of his friends must have put something in there, he thought naively.

As Cloud sat himself down, waiting for class to start, he opened his bag to see what his friends had put in. His hand stopped before pulling the zip even half way down.

Inside the bag the doll smiled at him eerily, not a scratch on it, even the bandage was gone. Cloud let a scream, bringing him to the full attention of the class.

"Cloud what is the problem? Can't you see I'm trying to start a class here?" The teacher looked disapprovingly over to him. Cloud could only shake his head, his mouth open in a silent scream as he edged away from the bag. Zack, curious of what Cloud seemed so scared of, nonchalantly wondered over to Cloud's bag.

"I didn't know you were into dolls" Zack grinned and reached down to pull the doll from the bag "What you afraid of? It's just a doll." The doll grabbed hold of Zack's hand.

"I don't want you here." It said and Zack was flung across the classroom into a few desks before sliding to halt in front of the teacher. Screams erupted from the students, every one of them scrambling towards the door to escape the doll, which in the chaos had calmly removed itself from the bag and started moving towards Cloud.

"Don't come any closer." Cloud grabbed a chair to defend himself with, taking three steps backward every time the doll stepped forward. "STAY AWAY FROM ME!" he yelled.

"Stay with me, Cloud." The doll smiled, getting closer. Cloud leaned against the classroom window, trapped. "My puppet." The chair was pulled away from Cloud, who panicked and took a look from the window, there was no way he could survive a jump from this height to escape. "Stay with me." the doll repeated and jumped at Cloud.

Cloud let out a terrified scream as the doll latched onto him. Behind him the window glass crack and finally shattered, leaving no support for Cloud. As if in slow motion, Cloud fell from the classroom window, hearing the shouts from the students and Zack's distinctive voice yelling his name.

Cloud hit the floor with a loud crack. Not even the snow could cushion his fall this time. He managed to tilt his head to the side, his breath laboured. The doll smiled as it saw the red blossom against the white snow.

* * *

"Daddy, look!" Marlene enthusiastically pointed at the shop window. Barret smiled as his daughter gushed over the dolls in the window.

"Those two, Daddy, aren't they cute?" She squealed and pointed to two dolls that were leaning against each other, their hands entwined. Long silver hair cascaded over black leather and pale skin, green eyes watching its companion intensely. The other doll, with golden spikes and brilliant blue eyes, stared vacantly out the window.


End file.
